Why is ever Paypal transaction doubled?

glick.melissa

Every time I purchase something with Paypal it is deducted twice. Once from my paypal account and once from my bank account. What do I do? Cant attach word doc for illustration. Also unable to add Paypal tag.
Thanks
Melissa

Boatnmaniac

To transfer from one account in Quicken to another is pretty simple:  In the category field of the transaction in one account type in the name of the other account enclosed in brackets.  For example, assuming the name of your Paypal account in Quicken is PAYPAL, you would enter [PAYPAL] in the category field of the transaction that was downloaded into your checking account.  Save the transaction and it will now show up in the PAYPAL register as a deposit from your checking account.

Boatnmaniac

Take a look at the downloaded payment details showing up in your checking account.  My guess is that you will see they are being pulls into Paypal and not payments being made directly to the seller.

Then look at the downloaded payment details showing up in your Paypal account.  My guess is that you will see they are the direct payments made to the seller....but there are no cash deposits shown in Paypal to fund that payment. 

At least that is what happens to me. What fixes the issue for me is to make sure the transactions downloaded into my checking account are categorized as transfers to my Paypal account.  That will make the actual cost of the purchase being paid for out of my checking account while the Paypal register shows net-zero canceling pass-through transactions.

Another option would be to have Paypal hold cash (pull it from your checking account).  Then when you buy something via Paypal it will decrement the cash balance being held in Paypal.

glick.melissa

Thank you, that sounds right, just not sure how to actually do that. I will give it a try! Thanks again!! Life saver. I've had this problem for years!!

Boatnmaniac

To transfer from one account in Quicken to another is pretty simple:  In the category field of the transaction in one account type in the name of the other account enclosed in brackets.  For example, assuming the name of your Paypal account in Quicken is PAYPAL, you would enter [PAYPAL] in the category field of the transaction that was downloaded into your checking account.  Save the transaction and it will now show up in the PAYPAL register as a deposit from your checking account.

BK

I am taking a different approach where I didn't add my PayPal account to Quicken at all.  And I leave zero cash balance in PayPal.  So in my case, when I pay using PayPal, I would see a deduction in either my bank account or credit card (depending on your default payment setup).  The downloaded transaction in Quicken typically shows up as "PAYPAL *StoreABC Ebay" for example - so I clearly know that I bought something from StoreABC via eBay and used PayPal to pay for it.  Just a thought.

Boatnmaniac

BK said:

I am taking a different approach where I didn't add my PayPal account to Quicken at all.  And I leave zero cash balance in PayPal.  So in my case, when I pay using PayPal, I would see a deduction in either my bank account or credit card (depending on your default payment setup).  The downloaded transaction in Quicken typically shows up as "PAYPAL *StoreABC Ebay" for example - so I clearly know that I bought something from StoreABC via eBay and used PayPal to pay for it.  Just a thought.

Thanks for piping in with this other perfectly viable option.

Like the saying goes:  "Different strokes for different folks."  I had thought about doing it that way, too, but I also use Paypal for financial transactions with various family members so there is often a cash balance in my Paypal account and I want to make sure I'm keeping that in front of me.  Adding Paypal to Quicken was, IMO, the best way to do that.  But if I didn't have that to think about I probably would do it the way you suggested.

splasher

Like @BK , I only use PayPal to purchase things and have no incoming funds.  I don't monitor/download from Paypal and I only see the purchase as a download in the connected credit card account.

If you only use Paypal to isolate your purchases from your other accounts, I suggest not tracking your Paypal account in Quicken.

glick.melissa

Almost there, See attached, The top two transactions look correct, but the next three do not have a balancing deposit, then the last one also does. Why? Shouldnt one have the category from my list and the other says transfer from paypal? Thanks

Boatnmaniac

@glick.melissa - There should be no transfer from PayPal into PayPal.  It should be a transfer from another account (such as checking, savings or credit card) into PayPal. 

Using the file you attached, the 2 transfer transactions shaded in yellow---[BOFA CORE...] and [BoA Visa...]---appear to be done correctly because they show the money being transferred into your PayPal account.

But the one circled in red appears to be done incorrectly because it shows the money being transferred into your PayPal account is coming from your PayPal account.  For this transaction and for the other 3 transactions ($1.00, $55.00 and $93.99) you need to find the transactions in your other accounts (such as checking, savings or credit card).  When you find them, change the category in those other account transactions to [PayPal Account glick.melissa....].  Those will then show up as deposits in your PayPal account.

One other comment: If you had a positive cash balance in your PayPal account the transactions might have simply decremented that positive cash balance.  In that case there would have been no deposit to PayPal made from another account (or it might have been for an amount less the the total purchase).